Artist Quote of the Week

"The Music Industry....I often wish that I could save everyone, but I'm a dreamer."

-Scarface

Working with the Press

The job of a music publicist is to create a database of contacts within the entertainment industry, and determine which magazines, newspapers, fanzines, and e-zines are most likely to review a client's record, interview them, or write a feature story. This job is not any easier than finding a distributor or getting radio airplay.

Publicity, by itself, does not sell a lot of records. It is most effective when your name is consistently in front of music fans. That will not happen overnight. You will most likely be your own music publicist in the beginning, and it will take you some time to learn how to work with the press. But, learning some basic facts about music journalists and how they operate is as important as the tips I gave you for working with distributors and radio stations.

Music journalists are a strange breed. They are, for the most part, a fickle group of individuals with their own inconsistent musical tastes, egos, and attitudes. If you want your local music magazine, or some music e-zine to write a story about you, even review your record, there are some things to learn about these important gatekeepers. If you anticipate getting a newspaper entertainment editor to pay attention to your latest release, or write a feature story on you; being aware of the work habits of these professional journalists can be a great deal of help to you


Read the Entire article @http://www.musicbizacademy.com/knab/articles/workingpress.htm

Record Labels in Trouble?

We all know that the record business is in major transition, has been for a few years now. Still, major labels and independent labels are trying to figure out what the new model is. But the real problem with most labels is that they still want to be in 'big business'. This is the first real issue labels have got to deal with. Because CD sales are on the downturn, record labels are cutting back on staff (hence the EMI shake up recently). But I have my own opinion about this. I firmly believe any existing record label that has an office staff on salary is now doomed to fail. And the old model where labels had one or two successful acts in order to 'fund' 80% of their other failed acts, absolutely needs to go. Any label existing today thinking that this is something that even has a chance of working has its days numbered.


Read the entire article @http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/cs_survival.htm

The Right Manager

Trustworthiness is an incredibly important attribute to look for in a manager. Think about it, you’ve worked for so many years learning how to play your instrument and write your songs, and your band has been rehearsing and promoting its shows for years—AND NOW YOU’RE GOING TO TURN OVER A GREAT DEAL OF RESPONSIBILITY TO SOMEONE YOU BARELY KNOW! Sounds scary doesn’t it? Trust must be earned over time, but if a manager doesn’t at least show an initial caring, enthusiasm, and commitment for your dreams and passions, you may not have the right guy. Is your manager just interested in making a quick buck off of you—or perhaps just interested in having a romantic relationship? Seriously! You really need to follow your gut instinct on both these issues from day one.

I remember one very famous manager firmly saying to a group that he didn’t need to like or be passionate about their music in order to do business with them. Sounds rather insensitive, but because of his power and clout, the band decided to go ahead and work with him. As it turns out, the relationship ended in disaster. The band drove all the way across country in a van to perform a showcase, and the manager didn’t even show up—nor did any industry people! True story. Coincidently, after that, the manager didn’t even return the band’s phone calls. Nice! Perhaps he realized there was no quick buck to be made from the relationship? Who knows?

In similar situations, so many bands are promised that there’s a big tour or record contract right around the corner and that the labels are ready to ink the deal. One or two years later, the band is still playing the same dive clubs and are unsigned.

A manager can’t lie to his artists as some ploy to keep them under control, feel powerful, or to perhaps manipulate into a romantic relationship. Again, an initial feeling of genuine caring, enthusiasm, commitment, and over all trust is a major quality to look for in a personal manager. Without these traits, no matter how powerful and well connected the manager may be, you may end up with nothing more than a lot of broken promises.


Respect
A manager must also be someone that you can respect. We’re not just talking about the number of successful bands this individual has managed or how many gold and platinum records he has on the wall, we’re talking about morality and ethics. What does your manager really stand for? Is he/she well educated? Well groomed? Does he show a genuine loyalty to other business partners and associates? Does he show an interest in win-win relationships in other business ventures? Is he family-oriented? Does he do anything to give back to the community? Or is your manager all about making money and flash—big houses, expensive cars, and arm-piece girl friends at any expense? Is he a spoiled rich-kid or businessman who got into management to fulfill some show-biz fantasy? Is he a former drug dealer or dubious business person? Does he hang out and party twice as hard as you? Is he a bully? Hey, I’m not making these examples up! Surely, it’s not like you’re an angel looking for a saint, but overall a manager must maintain a level of authority and respect and perhaps even be somewhat of a father figure to you. Many bands, not that they’ll always admit it, want someone they know they can look up to and feel protected by. They want both someone who’s going to take them under their wing and keep everything under control—a super hero who can do no wrong, and someone who knows how to be down to earth and admit that they don’t have an answer to a particular situation.

Of course, you may initially be impressed with someone who makes a lot of noise, blows a lot of smoke, wines and dines you, and flexes a lot of muscle—but are you really going to trust your whole career to guy like this?

A manager must be secure, grounded, firm, confident, educated, and well respected—far above all the bells and whistles and shallow surface stuff discussed above. Without these positive and respectful attributes, your only building a relationship in a personal manager that is doomed to eventually fail!

"Music is a big machine that would go on with or without me."


Rob Thomas, Matchbox 20

Lawyers vs. Managers

Once you have secured a lawyer, he will likely work with you to find management, if you don’t have it in place already. They will do this for two reasons. First, they know that most labels are going to be more likely to sign you if you have a manager, and second, because they don’t want to be your manager themselves. Managing you would keep them from doing what they are genetically predisposed to do: make deals.

Read the entire article@
http://www.artistshousemusic.org/articles/how+lawyers+differ+from+managers

DMX޲ SPE޲AKS޲ ABO޲UT THE޲ MUS޲IC IND޲UST޲RY

DiMA Requests

Digital music services, music publishers and Congress have been seeking for years to resolve complex legal issues that have hampered digital music growth and innovation. One of these issues is whether internet radio or any form of digital streams intended to be enjoyed as immediate performances require a license under Section 115 of the Copyright Act, which has historically been viewed as relating to the distribution of musical compositions that are part of sound recordings. Today DiMA has asked the Copyright Royalty Board to formally request that the U.S. Copyright Office resolve this issue.

Digital music services believe that digital performances are like radio and should require a performance license only. Music publishers historically have asserted that "on demand" or "interactive" digital performances are subject to the both the public performance right and a publishing "mechanical" right (a combination of the reproduction and distribution rights that are generally granted together for the production and distribution of CDs or digital downloads).




Read the entire article@
http://musicdish.com/mag/index.php3?id=12173

The New Horizon

It’s a great time to be an artist interested in building a sustainable career in the music business. With the ongoing changes of the music business and the advent of the digital music industry, there is a thriving music scene and with more options than ever for artists to build and reach fans across the globe.

Technology has forever changed the music industry and is shifting the power from a handful of large corporations back to the artists themselves. Only a few years ago an artist would pretty much have to sign with a label to put a record out due to the high costs of recording and lack of independent distribution options. Today artists can make a fairly high quality recording on their own with some good equipment and readily available software. Most of all, today there are multiple direct ways to distribute CD’s and digital tracks.

That’s the good news.

The challenge is that the music business itself is still quite complex and the technology, licensing and distribution options are so numerous that it can be overwhelming. The industry and related technologies are changing so rapidly that there is virtually no expert to turn to for guidance. It’s also becoming increasingly difficult for serious, high quality artists to get noticed by fans, booking agents, managers, program directors and record labels given the sheer amount of music flooding the market now that pretty much anyone can get their music recorded and distributed.

Artist Quote of the Week

"The whole music business in the United States is based on numbers, based on unit sales and not on quality. It's not based on beauty, it's based on hype and it's based on cocaine. It's based on giving presents of large packages of dollars to play records on the air."

Frank Zappa

Lo-Fi Recording...

Lo-fi is the opposite of hi-fi. Technically, hi-fi sound implies a flat frequency response with no noise, distortion, or other imperfections. In contrast, lo-fi sounds might have a narrow frequency response (a thin, cheap sound), and could include artifacts such as aliasing, hiss, distortion, or record scratches and vinyl surface noise.

Lo-fi really took off with rap music, in which the drum sound was the opposite of the usual polished studio sound. Instead of a tight kick, we heard a boomy kick; wide-range snare sounds with a full thump and crisp attack gave way to tinny, trashy snares that were all midrange. Lo-fi is also a component of some dance music and of course, punk is not about polite sounds, either.

No matter what type of music you do, though, lo-fi can add extra textures and colors that make a song stand out from the crowd. So, let’s look at a few ways not to take out the trash, but put it in.

Read the entire article@
http://www.eqmag.com/article/lo-fi-recording/mar-08/33643

Setting Up A Label

Well, since this is the “music” – “business”, you need to have two (2) things: (1) Hot Music! and (2) your “business” needs to be right!



Having hot music should speak for itself. It’s either hot or it’s not! Notice that the above-mentioned examples of music entrepreneurs all happen to be rappers. There is a reason for that. Hip-Hop is a music genre (along with dance/club music) that doesn’t necessarily need mainstream radio to create a “buzz” and sell records. The “Street” (i.e., DJ’s, mixtapes, and the Internet) can help drive sales of your record without mainstream radio exposure. R&B artists have a bit more difficulty because radio airplay is needed to sell units and hiring independent radio promoters to get an R&B record on the radio can be very costly.



Getting your business “right” is the next most important thing to consider. There are four (4) types of business entities that you can use to get your record label up and running. You can operate your record label as either a: 1) Sole Proprietorship, 2) Partnership, 3) Corporation or 4) Limited Liability Company.



With a Sole Proprietorship, the business is run by one person who is also the owner. It is easy to create by going to the local county courthouse and filling out some simple forms such as a “DBA” (“doing business as”) with the fictitious name of your company. The big disadvantage with a Sole Proprietorship is that if you get sued and you lose, the judgment creditor can recover against both your business and personal assets (there goes that “Jacob” watch!!) and that’s not a good look!



A Partnership is an association of two or more people conducting business on a continual basis for profit. There’s usually a written partnership agreement that outlines the duties and responsibilities of each partner. Big disadvantage: Each person in the Partnership is responsible and liable for the business obligations of the Partnership incurred by any of the partners. So if your partner signs a contract to pay a record producer to produce a song and doesn’t - all of the partners are responsible for the payment. If the Partnership fails to pay the Producer, he can sue all the partners and if he wins, the personal assets of the partners can be taken but only after all the partnership assets, if any, have been taken (there goes the Maybach!). Again, not a good look especially if your partners are irresponsible.



A Corporation is a better look. A Corporation is a separate legal entity with a life apart from the people who own and operate it. Using the earlier example, if a Corporation enters into an agreement to pay a record producer and doesn’t, the producer can sue the Corporation and if the Producer wins only the assets of the Corporation can be taken but not the personal assets of the individual owners of the Corporation (you get to keep your house!). There are also significant tax advantages to creating a Corporation.



You can incorporate a company by filing an “Article of Incorporation” with the Secretary of State Department in the state where you’ll be doing business (check the Internet for companies that can assist you) or you can retain the services of an attorney to incorporate the company for you.



Finally, a Limited Liability Company (“LLC”) is a business entity that has the elements of a Corporation and a Partnership. In an LLC, the owners (members) are parties to a contract known as the “Operating Agreement” which outlines the rights, duties and rules of the LLC. As with a Corporation, LLC’s provide limited liability and protection of the member’s personal assets while allowing the members to be treated as a partnership for ownership and tax purposes

Copyright Forms

Copyright registration establishes the legal owner and/or publisher of intellectual property for works such as musical compositions or the lyrics for a song. In music, two registration forms are the most common. The PA Form and the SR Form.

PA Forms are used to copyright the composition itself, while SR Forms are intended to protect the sound recording of intellectual property. It is important to understand the difference between these two forms. Theoretically, you could copyright a terrific song using the PA Form, record your project and start selling your CDs in stores everywhere. But if you had never registered the sound recording of your song using the SR Form, another band could send in the very same recording using an SR Form and claim that your recording belonged to them. You would be credited for ownership of the song, but they would get the credit for all your hard labor in the recording studio and collect all the mechanical royalties! Hopefully that brief scenario shows just how important the SR Form really is.

The good news is that you can use the SR Form to do the job of both forms. Simply download the SR Form and, in the space called NATURE OF AUTHORSHIP, enter something along the lines of “All music and sound recording.” This will protect your interest in both the composition as well as the recording, all in one form, thereby saving you the cost of a second registration. This will not work if you use the form PA. Your application will be rejected if you do not use the SR Form to cover both aspects of your copyright.

If you are writing and recording a song with someone else, each space for the NATURE OF AUTHORSHIP might read, “50% of all music and sound recording.” Please note that you can not split percentages with regard to the sound recording. Everyone involved in the recording shares the same interest in the sound recording, even if different weighted percentages are used with regard to ownership of the actual song. If only one person or a few people own the song and more people are involved in the recording ownership who are not defined as providing a “work for hire” then a PA Form should be used to file for ownership and a separate SR Form should be used for copyright of the sound recording.

To save even more money by making the most of your SR Form, register several songs at once. You can register them as a “collection” by entering the name of the collection on the first title space and the individual “content titles” in the second space. To do this all authors must have the same percentages of ownership for each song. In other words, if you wrote one song all by yourself and the second song was written by two people, you would need to use a separate SR Form for each song. If you wrote all the songs yourself, or the same people wrote all the songs with the same ownership splits, you can use one form to register all the songs.

Artist Quote of the Week

"So many record companies turned me down, they said I sounded like a Chipmunk."

--Brandy

Performance Marketing / Tour Support

Live shows are often the best way to develop a new artist and expose new music. Seeing a band live can be all it takes to convince their fans to buy a CD, a radio station to play their single, or a publication to review their album/demo. Therefore, tour support should be an integral part of your marketing plan. The term “tour support” is used in the music industry to define either:


The amount of money a record label gives an artist to help cover the costs of touring and keep/send them on the road.


The efforts of members of your business team (record label personnel, marketing reps, your manager, etc.) to promote your shows and take advantage of marketing opportunities surrounding a live performance.


For the purposes of this section, we’re going to focus on the second part of the definition, related to marketing. In this context, tour support isn’t just about marketing a tour as a whole, but also about marketing each individual performance separately, and marketing the artist around their live shows. So even if you are a local act playing a few shows in your hometown, this section is still of critical importance to you. In fact, this section is relevant for any artist, of any stature, anywhere-- as long as they’re playing some live shows. Tour support is definitely not just for those on a formal “tour.” That’s why I prefer to use the term “performance marketing.”

Performance marketing is a very involved process that begins a few weeks before every showdate and continues for about a week after. It also incorporates all the other elements of the music marketing mix (e.g. retail, radio, press, etc.) so you should make sure you have reviewed those StarPolish sections before reading further. You will be busiest surrounding your performances. Therefore, you may want to create a personal checklist to ensure that you cover all your bases in performance marketing.

President Bush/Performance Royalties

Unpaid P2P Settlements

Managers of top recording artists are considering legal action against major record labels, saying that Universal, Warner Music (NYSE: WMG) and EMI are dragging their feet in distributing hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements from copyright infringement lawsuits against file-sharing firms like Napster and Kazaa, the New York Post reported. "Artist managers and lawyers have been wondering for months when their artists will see money from the copyright settlements and how it will be accounted for," attorney John Branca, who has represented Korn and The Rolling Stones, told the Post. "Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don't get paid soon."



Read the entire article@http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/02/29/artist-managers-consider-suing-over-unpaid-p2p-settlements

Imeem Acquires Snocap

Social network, Imeem, has acquired struggling music-licensing company, Snocap, the company cofounded by Shawn Fanning of Napster fame, according to a published report TechCrunch, citing an unnamed source, reported that the deal is being finalized this week.

Snocap offers to handle copyright and music licensing for musicians and also powers embeddable download stores that artists can place on any site. From these digital-music vending machines, musicians sell their own music. In October, Snocap CEO Rusty Rueff told CNET News.